They are downvoting those who are using upvote bots to protect steem. Just don't use upvote bots and everything will be ok. I also stoped using them. There is a big war in steem against them to improve the quality here. Try to find communities to grow in. For example you can grow in https://www.creativecoin.xyz/ ( it's a tribe that accept cooking content ). You may find there your audiance.